Gaza City has become a place where sleep is a memory and every night is marked by terror. The sky above is no longer a refuge but a harbinger of destruction. For residents, homes have turned into graves under the shadow of Israel’s ongoing genocide, a campaign that has now extended into systematic attacks on civilians and their shelters.

Since August 8, the city has faced relentless operations under a policy announced by Israel to reoccupy Gaza. In neighbourhoods across the city, booby-trapped vehicles and low-flying drones have transformed daily life into a waking nightmare. These decommissioned military vehicles, packed with tons of explosives, destroy entire buildings in seconds. Meanwhile, drones drop explosive devices on rooftops, creating both physical destruction and psychological trauma. For many, the threat is constant.

Residents speak of nights filled with fear. Najla Adel, 30, from Sabra, describes her home as no longer a safe haven: “Night doesn’t mean rest here, it means fear. We go to sleep waiting for that deadly sound of the drones. When the robots explode, the walls collapse, windows shatter, and lives are torn apart. My children hide whenever they hear a drone’s buzz. It’s like a curse, a message that we will never have peace.”

Alaa Al-Sousi, 50, recounts the human cost: “This is not war, this is genocide. Entire families vanish under rubble. No one survives unscathed. Targeting homes is a policy designed to break us, to strip away life, hope, and dignity.”

Thousands have fled, crammed into overcrowded shelters where conditions are desperate. Nurhan Al-Zebda, 20, speaks of life in displacement: “We sleep on cold ground with no water, no electricity, and no way to care for our children. They fall sick, but we have nowhere to go. Hunger and fear follow us everywhere.”

Fatima Al-Sankari, a mother of two, adds: “The water we have is dirty, my children suffer from illness, and the nights are endless. Every sound of a drone or explosion fills them with terror. We have lost our home, our safety, and perhaps our future.”

For Gaza’s civilians, these nights of terror are part of a broader reality, a calculated campaign in which homes are turned into battlegrounds, and survival itself has become an act of resistance.